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Heart Safe Schools

The Snider Community Heart Watch and National Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndromes (SADS) Foundation have worked together to create the Heart Safe School accreditation program. The goal of the accreditation is to increase awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and train schools on how to help a cardiac arrest victim until an ambulance arrives.

In order to obtain accreditation, each school has to meet certain criteria, including a screening and risk assessment of students, CPR training for students and staff and identifying the correct locations of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). Students and staff also must also successfully complete a timed drill that simulates a student or staff member collapsing from a cardiac event in which responders are required to properly use CPR and apply an AED in a timely manner.

The Snider Community Heart Watch team awarded the first Heart Safe School accreditation in the United States to West Elementary School in Lancaster in 2013. Preparing for accreditation takes just a few months to complete. Heart Safe Schools make for heart safe communities. More than 95 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching a hospital. Knowing how to properly use an AED and successfully assist a victim in times of emergency saves lives.

For more information, contact the Snider Community Heart Watch at 740-689-6893.